xv, 506 pages ; 25 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 457-490) and index

Part One: Ancient Enemies -- Huwawa and Gilgamesh -- The Gilgamesh tradition -- Variants of the Huwawa narrative -- Huwawa and his trees: the ambivalence of the adversary -- The dragon and the sea: Ancient near eastern combats -- cosmogony or kingship? -- Canaanite battles with sea -- Marduk and Tiamat -- Ninurta and the Anzu-Bird -- Ninurta and the Azag demon -- Ninurta, Akhenaton, and Psalm 104 -- Syncretism in the Enuma Eliš -- Death and the dragon -- The voice of God -- Greece and the Near East -- Pherecydes and the Canaanite connection -- Hesiod's theogony: the glorification of Zeus -- Zeus the rebel -- Combat at the Red Sea: The Exodus Legend -- The survival of tradition -- Dry ground through sea and river -- Kingship and the myth language -- Exodus typology and redemption

Part Two: Rebellion and Apocalypse -- The Satan of the Old Testament -- The adversary as rebel -- Rebellion as combat motive -- Which one is the rebel? Enuma Eliš -- Athtar: the rebel in Canaan -- Phaethon: the rebel in Greece -- Lucifer: the rebel in Isaiah -- The rebel princes in Ezekiel -- From prophecy to apocalypse -- The sons of God and the daughters of men -- Rebellion and lust: The watcher angels in the Aramaic Enoch books -- Semihazah: the mixing of angels and women -- Asael and forbidden knowledge -- The convergence of Satan and the watcher angels: the Book of Jubilees -- The angel of light and the angel of darkness -- Giants and tress: the moralized myth -- The two spirits -- The prophet and the Satanic priest -- Antifeminism and theological dilemmas

Part Three: Gnostic and Christian Mythology -- The Adam books and the serpent's identity: Gnostic developments from Jewish apocalyptic -- The watchers and Eve -- Adam and original wisdom -- Origins and texts of the Adam books -- Seth and the Oil of Mercy -- The serpent and Satan -- The birth of Cain -- Satan's envy of Adam: a Gnostic allegory -- Excursus: Satan in the Slavonic Book of the Secrets of Enoch -- Apocalypse and Christian Combat -- Pauline enemies -- Paul and apocalypse -- The myth of Psalm 110.1 -- Paul and his opponents -- The adversary and the law -- The origins of the struggle -- The Pauline tradition -- The combat in the synoptic Gospels -- The Devil and the Canon

Part Four: The Demiurge and the Devil -- Satan the heretic -- First born of Satan -- Satan and Judas -- Gnosticism and the demiurge -- The watchers and the demiurge -- Valentinian gnosis: the purification of God -- Marcion the Literalist -- The demiurge and Genesis -- Irenaeus: Refutation of the demiurge -- Apostasy and ransom -- Adam and recapitulation -- The watcher angels in the early Church -- Origen's wicked angels: universal fall and redemption -- Origen and interpretation -- Redemption and ransom -- The Enoch tradition -- Origen on first principles -- Celsus and pagan allegory -- Origen's reply to Celsus -- Part Five: Augustine and the structure of Christian Mythology -- Augustine: the task and the opponents -- Christian variations of fall and redemption -- Manichaeism: the divided cosmos -- Manichaean dualism and Augustinian dialectic -- Heresy and opposition -- The theory of sin -- The city of sin and the city of grace -- Augustine's confessions: the two trees -- Augustine and Genesis -- Ambrose on Eden -- Augustine on Eden: the Anti-Manichaean Genesis -- The sin of Satan: the "literal" Genesis -- Augustine's Eve -- Opposition and conversion: God's plot -- Appendix: Methods and terms -- Classification of traditional narrative -- Propp on morphological analysis -- The combat plot -- Oral-formulaic poetry

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